Flanking III
Strategy Note that Flanking I, Flanking II, and Flanking III add a cumulative +50% Withdrawal chance (+20%, +20%, +10%) to Mounted Units, which start with some base withdrawal chance. This means that a Horseman can start with a net 75% chance to withdraw, and Horse Archers, Chariots and Knights have 85% chance to withdraw. This becomes even stronger with the Hippus civilization, which has the Horselord civilization trait which grants Mounted units an extra +10% withdraw chance, and any civilization that has the Homeland trait, which grants all units an extra +10% withdraw chance. Thus, a Horseman can get 85% withdraw chance, and Horse Archers, Chariots and Knights can get a whopping 95% chance to withdraw. However, getting these high numbers requires some finesse: the game has a Flanking promotion cap, where if a unit already has 80% withdraw chance or greater, it is not allowed to take anymore Flanking promotions. For example: *Normal Horseman: **25% Withdraw + 20% (Flanking I) + 20% (Flanking II) + 10% (Flanking III) = 75% Withdraw *Horseman (with +10% Withdraw from Horselord or Homeland): **(25+10)% Withdraw + 20% (Flanking I) + 20% (Flanking II) + 10% (Flanking III) = 85% Withdraw *Normal Horse Archer: **35% Withdraw + 20% (Flanking I) + 20% (Flanking II) + 10% (Flanking III) = 85% Withdraw *Horse Archer (with +10% Withdraw from Horselord or Homeland): **45% Withdraw + 20% (Flanking I) + 20% (Flanking II) = 85% Withdraw **NOTE: Because the Horse Archer already has >80% withdraw chance, it is not allowed to take Flanking III. One way to get around this is to train Horsemen and promote them to Flanking III before upgrading them to Chariots/Horse Archers/Knights/etc, as they will have 85% withdraw before upgrading and gaining an extra 10% withdraw from the base chance to end up at a crazy 95% withdraw chance. To do this, you must NOT be able to build both Horse Archers and Chariots: once you are able to build both, then Horsemen will become obsolete and you will not be able to build any more. (For example, in the city that you plan to build the Horsemen from, do NOT build a Siege workshop (which enables Chariots)--as long as you can't build one of the two upgrades to Horsement in the city, you will be able to continue constructing base Horsemen.) The ideal strategy would be to have a Stable and the Ride of the Nine Kings but not a Siege Workshop in a single city: this guarantees that you will be able to build Horsemen with +9 xp (and +any bonus xp from civics), which can get Flanking I and Flanking II immediately (and Flanking III at 10xp), which you can then promote to Horse Archer or Chariot or Knight for a 95% withdraw chance. The Hippus are possibly the best at this strategy because Horselord grants an extra +1 movement point on Mounted units in addition to the +10% withdraw chance, so you'll have 4-move units (that can use enemy roads if you have the Raiders trait) with 95% withdraw chance and immunity to first strikes, which is a position that you can virtually never lose from once you obtain this force. Category:Promotions